“We don’t live in a village, so you have to manifest a village to create one,” says Sophia Parvizi-Wayne, who lives in Highgate.
Despite being in a city of nine million, Londoners love the idea of living in a village. Areas such as Dulwich Village, Wimbledon Village and Abbeville Village conjure up images of quaint shops, period homes and green spaces, making them more desirable — and more expensive. Estate agents have latched on to the power this word has and can overuse it, describing areas as “villages” when they are anything but, in an attempt to woo buyers.
